PBA Galleries

Copperplate engraving, captioned in Russian and German. Approximately 14½x21" (plate size) on 20x26½" sheet. Plate 54.

Depicts the boat which first took the Russian Embassy ashore in Nagasaki. Prince Eisen's curtained craft is in the foreground. This image comes from the atlas of plates to Krusenstern's account of his voyage around the world (published St. Petersburg, 1810-1814).The expedition set off from Kronstadt in August 1803 aboard two English vessels purchased for the voyage. Traveling via Cape Horn and visiting the Sandwich Islands, Kamchatka and Japan, they eventually returned to the same port, via the Cape of Good Hope, in August 1806. The expedition constituted the first ever Russian voyage round the world, and the published work included much of value, particularly about Japan. Krusenstern's most important practical achievement was the establishment of diplomatic and commercial relations between Russia and Japan. Scarce.